To Do List of Art: The Final Countdown (This Blog 67.3% more intense if you blare the music of Europe while reading)

     So I've been digging in the catacombs of my art (a box I built for under my bed that when opened was 50% cat hair/50% art)  and I think I have a respectable to do list for the first portion of the Initiative.
     I have some things I still need to take care of before sitting down to paint.

Really big, important things. Trust me.

      So I am setting the official start date of The Paintmore Initiative as Monday April 9th, putting my completion date at June 27th (the day before my birthday? I absolutely did NOT plan that! I think its a good omen.) I'm writing this out as a schedule so that if there are certain projects that catch you're interest you'll know when to check it out.

 I'll be making art paintings from April 9th till June 27th

     (For those of you just skimming)
 
      The kind of bummer thing about documenting all the work is that some of the things on the list are going to be gifts to some of my friends and family and if they are nice enough to track my progress on here, it will ruin the surprise.  I'm choosing to believe that getting to see the process in depth will be a big enough treat (that's right, the privilege of reading my words is a treat, I hope you're savoring it) to offset the fact that they won't be surprised when they get their art gifts...Or at the very least serve as a warning that they're gonna have to be ready to fain gratitude for art they didn't ask for soon.

Don't be caught unawares like this couple who just opened their wedding portrait from me.

     I've tried to think about what my goals are and try to tailor the projects so that I get the most out of them.  I went over a little of this in the rules with my first post but here's a little more detail:

I'd love to capture this level of realism but glitter paint is only for the most highly skilled artisans.

      I want to loosen up and let the medium speak for itself a bit more.  That's the nice thing about hands on media verses the digital stuff I've done recently, if you can let go and not try to control every aspect of the work, you end up with a lot of happy accidents.  Especially with a medium like watercolor, the runs, the textures, the gradients, eventually you can get them to work with you and the result is...magical.
     I love to make people laugh and I'd like to find a way to interject that into the work and still be taken seriously as an artist.  This is a tough one since I'm essentially asking to have my cake and eat it too.  I may have to settle for playful or whimsical instead of full on funny since I can't think of anybody who would pay real art prices who want yuck-yuck jokes on their wall in their home.  I guess let me know if you disagree, maybe I'm describing my niche market and I'll be the first joke art bazillionaire. 
     That's the bulk of what I still have to learn before I'll be where I want to be as an artist.  I do want to work faster and have a better grasp of figure, clear the cloudiness between what I see in my mind and what comes out on paper, earn back the instincts I had in college of how wet the paper needs to be to get just the right draw of paint with watercolour and mix colors without having to think, draw with my whole arm without getting tired, etc. but these are all things that will happen along the way if I just do the work.

Enough stalling, here's the list of ideas so far.  Some are more fleshed out than others, some are just thoughts that I will have to build up as I begin to work. I know this contradicts what I just said in the last post but I think an outline might be better than an actual list.  I think its good to not have everything too planned, you don't want the art to stagnate in your mind before you even set brush to canvas.  Some of the work should be spontaneous and knee-jerk, that's part of the fun.  I'm being vague on purpose to keep you interested, its what they call a "tease" in the radio business, I bet you didn't know I was such a showman.

List of upcoming art projects:

4/9-4/11 - Wedding portrait in watercolour (just warming up)
4/12-4/14 - Closeup of parts from work in oil 
4/15-4/17 - UFO landing
4/18-4/20 -Your standard portrait
4/21-4/23 - Paper craft sunflower watercolour
Amendment Period ends (no turning back now!)
4/24-4/26 - Landscape - Pines shot from directly below the trees
4/27-4/29 - Grandma
4/30-5/2 - Spirit Tree
5/3-5/5 - Four panel Abstract that is arrangeable to create different looks 
5/6-5/7 - New Mama and child Portrait
5/8-5/10 - WWII Dog fight action
5/11-5/13 - Seudo-Cubist Jazz Combo with a pallet knife
5/14-5/16 - Coffee Collage
5/17-5/19 - Han Solo being a badass -watercolour and oil